Our annual Wag-O-Ween Party is just two Saturdays away. The showroom is spookily decorated with pumpkins, bats, ghosts, spiders and lots of cobwebs, some faux and even many authentic spider spun left especially for the occasion.

Today, I am considering this way Marvel-ous costume. What do you think? How long would it actually take to accomplish that face?

Calling all dogs!

Put on your costumes and bring your people in to the Wag-O-Ween Party 2011. Join us Saturday, October 22 for fun games, prizes and treats. Professional photographer Gretchen Osowski will be with us for fun fotos for pooches and people.

Oscar Day Fact: Many of our beds have starred in movies and have also made television appearances. Some of the beds have even been regulars on soap operas. The latest two auditioned and were selected for Target television commercials. Oprah had one of our family lounger bean bag chairs on her set years ago.

Does anyone else look at this stairway bed and think smelly feet? Well, it just might be the day. It’s another bed that we found on the long road of searching for new beds for Totally Kids fun furniture & toys, and another that we most likely will not stock. And by now, you know why. No silly, not the smelly feet thing, not up to our safety standards.

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While walking along the Pearl River in Guangzhou we found this to be disturbing, a man selling among other animal parts, rather fresh looking tiger paws with their orange and black striped fur intact. Isn’t this illegal? If not you wouldn’t you think that it should be.

Tiger In Crisis explains that the Chinese culture believes that nearly all parts of the tiger can be used to derive some medicinal cure for any number of ailments. Here are some examples of how tiger parts and their derivatives are used in traditional Chinese medicine and causing the tiger to be a critically endangered species:

Tiger claws: used as a sedative for insomnia

Teeth: used to treat fever

Fat: used to treat leprosy and rheumatism

Nose leather: used to treat superficial wounds such as bites

Tiger bone: used as an anti-inflammatory drug to treat rheumatism and arthritis, general weakness, headaches, stiffness or paralysis in lower back and legs and dysentery

Eyeballs: used to treat epilepsy and malaria

Tail: used to treat skin diseases

Bile: used to treat convulsions in children associated with meningitis

Whiskers: used to treat toothaches

Brain: used to treat laziness and pimples

Penis: used in love potions such as tiger soup, as an aphrodisiac

Dung or feces: used to treat boils, hemorrhoids and cure alcoholism

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Wonder if seeing these pigs feet might have something to do with smelly feet on the mind today?

How much candy can you fit into a crisp ghostly white percale environmentally friendly pillowcase and how many houses with steep steps do you have to run up to and shout out “trick or treat” to fill it?

At our house, Bob was the revered king of Halloween, never stuffing one, but close to almost two pillowcases full of candy year after year. Really no one else even needed to bother putting on a costume and venturing out on a chilly Halloween night as Bob brought home enough candy to keep the entire neighborhood in candy until the following Halloween. Not the case though, the challenge was on with everyone trying to top Bob’s record. This competition continued year after year and always with the same results, the Candy King was Bob. Looking back, Bob was the only one big and strong enough to carry home a nine pound bag filled with the spoils of Trick or Treating.

Then, the worst thing happened every year the day after Halloween. The mountains of candy would always disappear. Our cruel father would take the candy and donate it to the orphanage downtown.

Over the years we all came to forgive Dad from robbing us of weeks of sugar highs and sparing us from future trips to the dentist with rotting teeth. Dad was on to something and today there are others sharing his belief that there is a limit to after Halloween candy dilemma.

Quite possibly some of us may have found special spots to stash a few favorite goodies. Don’t tell Dad, Please…

What were your favorite Halloween candies as a kid? Do you remember any of these oldies but goodies? And there’s nothing like an old pillowcase – sturdy, voluminous, , and environmentally conscious – to hold your epic stash. But you must have wondered – exactly how much could you possibly collect i

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Rock Candy? Not quite, but No Time for Flashcards will show you how to create these rock Jack-O-Lanterns.

Dig up some scary bones with Frugal Family Fun. Sorry, you’ll have to resist gnawing on these bones.

Closing time, actually after closing time, the door was locked, lights turned off, sales team had all gone home, when Annie left her office to check out the loud banging sound coming from the front door. Even though it was after store hours, in the Nordstrom tradition, our GM, Annie, welcomed in the last guests of the day. Very nice of you Annie.

Standing outside were two men and a sweet little girl tapping and knocking on the front door. Eric, Jada’s dad was looking for beds and told us he had his eye on a race car bed, but there would be some jealousy issues bringing that bed home when it would not be for Jada. No new bed for that family on Sunday, but 6 year old Jana did go home ready for Halloween with a Policewoman costume. Eric was surprised with his daughter’s selection telling us that she has always been a princess sort of a girl.

The Totally Kids team prides itself on exceptional customer service. So much can be learned from Nordstrom where they developed management principles to achieving its #1 status for customer service in America, which are discussed in Robert Spector’s book, The Nordstrom Way (2005) :

Provide your customer with choices

Create an inviting place for your customers

Hire nice, motivated people

Empower employees to take ownership

Dump the rules (tear down barriers to customer service)

Commit 100% to customer service

Choices? Does Totally Kids ever provide customers with choices! You’ll see when you visit www.shoptotallykids.com. If for some reason what you are dreaming of or searching for is not found, there are knowledgeable personal shoppers and talented interior designers to assist you.

Inviting place? Stop in and you be the judge. Most adults comment over and over, “oh I wish that I had that when I was a child”. Then, the kids, they have a real “kids in a toy store” experience, so good that many of them leave crying when their mean parents tell them it’s time to go home. Hot tip: do not leave the store without a trip to the restroom.

Nice? Our team could all be rated “Minnesota Nice” and motivated to help families have a pleasant experience on their visit to Totally Kids.

Ownership is brilliantly demonstrated with the ongoing efforts of Stephanie and Megan’s talent in displays and merchandising creating eye candy for all guests. Leaving the store with toys colorfully gift wrapped for Free puts a smile everyone’s face.

Commit 100% to customer service? Behind the scenes, during the week our customer care manager extraordinaire, Lisa works with factories, shipping companies and customers. Her attention to detail and organizational skills maintains a very well oiled customer service machine.

Teaching responsibility is a parents responsibility, right? At what age do we begin this challenge? And it is a challenge. By age two, there are little chores such as delivering their dishes from the table to the sink, helping put some of their clothes in a dresser drawer or putting toys in a toy box. These are the easy years when little ones are eager to please and love mimicking big people tasks. Learning to dress themselves as soon as they are old enough will be a milestone. Then, the tough chore of teaching that clothes do not get dropped in a pile on the floor or used for making a trail through the house, but soiled clothes go in the hamper. Wishing you luck – lots of luck. More than luck, it’s dedication to your responsibility. Inevitably your two year old’s eagerness will wane and the fussing begins. We found working together as a parent child team with chore games or the responsibility chart is a huge help with motivation.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking it is just plain faster, easier and less frustrating to do the little tasks yourself, but DON’T fall for that temptation. This is the opportune time to teach the life important responsibility skills that will be harder and harder to teach when they have developed irresponsible behavior patterns.

Please let us know if you have winning tricks of the trade to pass on to other parents. Do your children have chores? What ages are they for the chores that they are doing?

Tin Can Pumpkins Martha Inspired. Recycle your cans and light up the night. Looks like another family friendly project for us to try. Can you tell we love this holiday?

These creatures are going to be a must make for us. Can’t wait for the how to lesson from Momfluential Media.

Candy Witches Brooms by make and takes claimed to make you cackle. I especially like the brooms with the foil removed. Must be the sight of chocolate. This clever treat even the youngest child could help make.

A beautiful crisp sunny day in Minneapolis and the fun and games continue. Last night some vandals had their own style of fun and games. Remember the pumpkins punctuating the purple planters? Shauna arrived this morning to find those pumpkins smashed all over the parking lot. Stephanie, bless her heart, somehow managed to pick up the pumpkin pieces and rearranged them back in the purple planters, almost as good as new. They now look like slightly leaning backward pumpkins sitting the the purple planters. Nicely salvaged, but we will see how long they survive.

First off today, we will start giving away tickets to the Zuhrah Shrine Circus and will continue for the rest of the week. When you stop by the store just tell us if you would like a ticket.

Things do slow down on Sunday afternoons here at Totally Kids when the Vikings are playing. Lisa, our customer care manager never misses going to a home game. Devon must have worn her winning jersey, sat in her favorite chair, or was it something to do with how her two Boxers behave that is crucial for the Vikes to win? This week they won, thanks Devon and dogs.

Daddy’s a Packers fan and we know Mommy’s a Vikings fan, just look at her face. Who is Baby O rooting for, Seahawks? Come on Betsy, let’s get him 0n board. Good job with the Vikings garb. Skol Vikings!

As you can see, the spiders were busy today. They must know that there are not many days left before the big Hall-O-Green Kids Costume Exchange Party on Saturday. Luckily they take their jobs seriously as they play an important role in the Halloween theme. If you do not have spiders at your house – you should try the Dollar Store for webs. Nothing spooks up a house easier and faster than a few packages of spider web. Best of all even the youngest little ones can have a frightfully fun time helping. So spread the web. Boo!

If you too are decorating for a party Amazing Moms offer tips for Halloween Party Games & Activities for Kids. We put General Bone E Part on our families build it together plans for this weekend. Let us know of any family Halloween projects that you have done and would like to share.

Avast: Lily-livered landlubbers – this vessels for me hearties, not for none of you.

Arrr! Two messy little pirates left their hats on the bottom bunk. Maybe they were frightened away by the bones under the bottom bunk.

It’s nitey nite matey, and smooth sailing off to sweet dreams in our Open Seas Pirate Bunk Beds that are sure to delight any child. This vessel boasts a rich cognac finish with antique brass finished portholes. Pirate’s moms love the fact that it is rigged with a (security) ships style ladder.

From Dave Jones Locker, is this pirate ghost is searching for his bunk?